BLUFF OYSTER SEASON

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 46, 6 February 1945, Page 7

BLUFF OYSTER SEASON

OPENED LAST WEEK

PROSPECTS STATED TO BE GOOD

The oyster season at Bluff opened last week ? and the prospects are. stated to be good. It. is expected that the fleet will comprise nine boats, states an Invercargill correspondent. This season: oystermen at Bluff and the Marine Department will co-operate in a survey of the Foveaux Strait oyster beds and will search for new beds. Every boat in the fleet will carry out a fortnight's surveying work ) and as there are nine boats a the survey will test for 18 weeks. By this means the di-< mensions of the present beds can be ascertained. In 1939 a proposal was made by the Government that the survey sh&uld be carried out but no action- was taken because it was thought that the expenditure of time and money on the survey was not warranted. At that time most of the merchants were satisfied that

the oysters were present in large quantities in Foveaux Strait aod that the beds would never be exhausted. There is not the same certainty on this point and recently Mr H. J. Roderique } who has had 58 years' experience as an oyssounded a note of warning by declaring that there was a danger of the beds becoming exhausted in the cours® of the next few years.